Lying About Military Discharge 28 Years Later Comes Back to Bite Applicant

Another Defense Office of Hearing and Appeals (DOHA) case where you just shake your head and wonder “what was he thinking?” The applicant was initially denied a security clearance by the Department of War based on concerns regarding his finances and personal conduct. At the DOHA appeal, he managed to provide enough mitigating evidence for the financial considerations but was not able to overcome a huge mistake in which he had deliberately lied about another issue. Here are the highlights of the appeal.

The applicant was serving in the U.S. Army Reserves in 1994 when he was accused of sexually assaulting a female soldier from another company. The investigation into the incident produced enough evidence, including a signed letter from the applicant to the victim apologizing for his conduct, for prosecutors to charge him with sexual assault. In lieu of going to a court martial, the applicant agreed to receive an Other Than Honorable type discharge. That was the only criminal charge the applicant has ever had. The assault itself was mitigated by time with no other similar conduct and wasn’t even brought up in the Statement of Reasons.

However, the applicant chose to deliberately list on his PVQ that he received an honorable discharge, and during his security interview with the background investigator, again lied, affirming he got an honorable discharge. When asked by the investigator as to why he was discharged, the applicant pretended not to remember, and that it might have been for fighting. At this point he was confronted with the assault charge but still continued to insist the discharge was honorable. Needles to say, the judge did not find the applicant’s testimony credible – clearance eligibility denied.